People think I'm crazy when I say this, but I LOVE query letters. I love writing them, I love editing them, I love reading them. When I worked for a publisher, reading queries was my favorite part! With #pitchwars coming up and the workshop on query writing I just taught at my local library, I've … Continue reading 10 Tips for an Outstanding Query

My day job is to plan events, mainly author events. I have emailed my manager the words "I just can't." twice today. Because I have spent the entire day dealing with authors who don't have the most basic materials they should have in order to promote their book, I thought I'd develop a short list … Continue reading Published Authors: Your Basic Media Kit

At the dayjob, I work with a lot of authors and frequently ask for headshots to use in our marketing of their events. You would be floored by how many people send me shots like these: click to see what's really wrong with this one. (Note: These are all altered stock photo images, not actual … Continue reading Faking a Professional Author Photo

There is one thing writers at any point in their career need to have prepared: an elevator pitch. The last time I asked an author "what's your book about?" I got a fifteen minute rambling monologue. I know a lot about the guy's son (?) but still have no idea what his book is about. … Continue reading Ten Tips for Your Elevator Pitch

I wrote this book. Let's call it MF. I thought it was fantastic, unique, clever, wonderful, etc. It was going to be a great hit and sell movies because it was so awesome. It was the second book I ever wrote (the first is this glorious kind of mess that I do intend on resurrecting … Continue reading Hard Truth Time: Not Every Book Deserves to be Published

I've been getting a lot of word count questions from Pitch Wars hopefuls, so I though I'd write everything out in a post for ease and convenience. These ranges are generalizations and there are always outliers. If you have a book that is a little bit outside these ranges, it's an extra hurdle and your … Continue reading Word Counts for Children, MG, YA, and Adult books, by genre

Rae Chang and I were just chatting on twitter about what phrases in queries are giant red flags for us. Some of these may seem obvious, but I guarantee anyone who has read slush has seen them more than a few times. If you find yourself writing any of these phrases into your query, it may be a … Continue reading 15 things to leave out of your query

You've booked an author signing event. Congratulations! Now what? In my dayjob as a library event planner, I host at least four Local Author Festivals every year, featuring at least ten authors per event. I deal with a lot of authors who are doing their first signing ever and am frequently asked questions like, "What … Continue reading How to Prepare for an Author Signing Event

Our topic this month is "Kill Your Darlings" so I'm here to talk about social media practices you should murder and leave in a ditch somewhere! 1) Twitter auto-DMs when someone follows you I follow someone on Twitter because I think they're fun/nice/entertaining/informative. Within minutes, I have a private message from them. Which seems nice, … Continue reading Authors: Kill These Bad Social Media Habits

Yesterday, I deposited my first ever advance check and it got me thinking about my journey up to this point. I've been seriously pursuing my writing for about five and half years now. I've been a newbie, an intern, a "publishing professional," a blogger, a vlogger - and now I'm a paid author. It's a … Continue reading You will never know everything, you need to know everything and 6 other things I know about writing